Cardinals starter Joe Kelly hit 98 MPH with his fourth pitch of the game, striking out Jacoby Ellsbury looking. It might have been a harbinger of things to come. Kelly retired the first nine Red Sox he faced, using a hard, tailing two-seam fastball to induce six ground outs and three strikeouts.

Ellsbury got his team’s first hit when he snuck a grounder past a diving Matt Carpenter into right field to lead off the fourth inning against Kelly. David Ortiz drew a two-out walk, but Daniel Nava struck out to end the inning, failing to capitalize on his team’s first opportunity to get on the board.

Kelly has needed just 51 pitches to get through the first four innings. It’s quite the development as the Red Sox have succeeded throughout the 2013 post-season by taking pitches and driving the opposing starter’s pitch count up early.

Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna was arrested in Toronto back on May 8 on charges of assault against a woman and he has been on MLB’s administrative leave list ever since — that leave having been extended twice already.

Canadian authorities aren’t revealing any details about the case so as to protect the identity of the accuser and it’s unclear where MLB’s investigation into the matter stands at this point, but Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports opens his latest column with this note …

Toronto Blue Jays star closer Roberto Osuna’s domestic issue is said by people familiar with the case to be serious and involve allegations of a physical nature, which would draw a significant ban.

Heyman notes that Major League Baseball handed 15-game suspensions to Jeurys Familia and Steven Wright for domestic assault cases where there was no physical abuse — or none proven — and that Aroldis Chapman got 30 games after a police report revealed that he did get physical with the victim and also fired a gun.

It sounds like Osuna could be facing a suspension of at least 20-25 games, given the precedent. Again, though, we don’t have any actual details.

Tyler Clippard has been operating as Toronto’s primary ninth-inning man in Osuna’s absence.